Your Humble Correspondent speaks at TEDMED

In April of 2012, I was invited to speak at TEDMED about my research on reproductive systems. I also took the opportunity to tell the audience we still have lots to learn about anatomy.

(Warning: there are some pictures of penises.)

So what's it like to give one of these big public talks? It's certainly different from a university classroom. First off, the audience is bigger. A lot bigger. Average size of my audience when I teach? About 50. TEDMED was held at the Kennedy Center's Opera House, and every seat on the main floor was filled. And that's not counting all the medical schools who were livestreaming the event. Intimidating? You bet. Add in the knowledge that the video was going to be on the internet, maybe forever, and you can understand why I was motivated to put a lot of time into writing and rehearsals.

The talks are also shorter than a class or a seminar. Classes and department seminars usually take about 45 minutes. The TEDMED limit? 12 minutes. Obviously, as Carl Zimmer pointed out in a recent Download the Universe post, that's not enough time to craft an extended argument. When your audience doesn't have any prior experience with your subject, 12 minutes is barely enough time to introduce it. And unlike a class, where you'd get the same audience 3 times a week, you have only one shot to get your point across. So when I planned my talk, I had to pick exactly one result from my research and build the talk around it. No graphs, no statistics, just the story leading up to that result and the reason it was meaningful. 

Fortunately, the audience at one of these events is also more engaged than your average room of undergraduates. There are always some kids in a college class who are there because of genuine interest in the subject, but bigger classes also bring in students who are only there to fulfill a requirement – and they're as likely to be Facebooking their friends about their weekend plans as paying attention to the lecture. Judging from the number of people who stopped me to ask questions after my talk, the audience was definitely paying attention. Thanks, guys.

Comments

[Chuck Pell]

Gang, I saw Diane's Talk live in DC - she owned the operahouse stage & got great appreciation from the movers & shakers in the audience. She grabbed their attention, kept it, and her Talk was the The Talk for the rest of the TEDMED conference. If anyone missed it, they were envious. Click on the link and enjoy.

[anne vinsel]

I just wanted to point out that the layers arranged in 0 degree then 90 degree orientation is how plywood works! It would make a nice slide...

[DianeAKelly]

Anne- it is indeed how plywood works, although a 2-ply plywood is pretty limited. More layers make plywoods tougher, and the best ones also have layers with other fiber angles than just 0 and 90 degrees. Insect exoskeletons are laid down like that - lots of layers, each with the fibers at a different angle.

[weezie]

Enjoyed your talk. Now I am very curious to know how the corkscrew-shaped penis of many ducks works! I would think the additional dimensions would require a more complex design.

[best dissertation help]

It's rewarding when your audience paid attention to your lecture, more if they asked questions about it. Yes, Diane, big public talks are a lot more different compared to classroom talk. I experienced it once when there was seminar held in our school wherein I was chosen to be the speaker. I had to prepare for my talk which will only last for 10minutes for about a month.

[finestpapers.com reviews]

I am a new reader to the site and I find the author, Diane, as a good writer. She explains the topics really well and now, I've come across to this video wherein Diane is speaking about anatomy and all in front of an audience and I must say that I am even more amazed! You have that power to easily capture the attention of your reader or audience for that matter. Great job!